Page:Judaism and Islam, a prize essay - Geiger - 1898.pdf/38

 JUDAISM AND ISLAM.

20 JUDAISM AND ISLAM.

can afford to give up one thing which is generally brought forward as specially proving our point. This is the fact that in certain passages Muhammad calls himself an " ummiyun" * a word which is usually translated " unlearned " " ignorant." Wahl takes it so, and mentions ife as a proof of Muhammad's ignorance. But this word has here the same meaning that is expressed by it in other passages, viz., belonging to the Arabs. It is used, like the word " jahiliyat," 2 of the Arabs in their former ignorance of Islam, and Muhammad, having risen from among them, thus designates himself 3 without reference to his own individual knowledge. 4 But, as already stated, even without this proof our conclusion holds good, viz., that because of his own ignorance especially, but also on account of that of the Jews around him, Muhammad could


 * Sura XII, 156.

3 fjjlttt Sura III. 148, III. 69.

- .- iviv^a - t w

6 /A*A/;5\ y, mina 1-nmmfyina or ,j<\ mmniytra.

4 The derivation of the word seems to me to support this view, Many different derivations have been suggested, but all are unsatisfactory. Some

ummat, and give B - a -_

as .examples of a similar formation ^# makiyun, and .J&* madaniyun

553- g^

from & makka and Ju. madina (see Ewald's Critical Grammar

of the Arabic language, I. 261. 2) j bufc then they do not explain the connection between the meanings of two words. This becomes clear, however, when we consider the development in the meaning of the similar Rabbinical word '''lil goi. This word, meaning in the Hebrew " people," later on came to mean a " non-Jew; " because the Jews became conscious that they themselves were a little community among the other inhabitants of the land, who were the "people" proper (compare the

expression Vlty^ ^^' ^ afc ^ rs * ; *^ e ^ us ^ m8 a ^ so m ^st have looked upon themselves as a small community in the midst of the populace,

OjS

the &\, each man who was not counted among themselves, being

%te a uas

to them one of the <!U\, or an ( ^*\, and so the word came to be used of all those who did not believe in repealed religion past and present,